Medical professionals and technicians, such as cytotechnologists, prepare numerous slides with samples of biological specimens. A cytotechnologist retrieves a vial or container having a sample, removes the cap or cover from the vial, obtains a sample, places a sample on a slide, places the cap back on the vial to close the vial, and places the vial back in a rack or storage. A cytotechnologist typically uses a marker to label the cap to identify which cap belongs to a particular vial so that the wrong cap is not placed on the wrong vial this prevents cross-contamination of samples in different vials. Repeating these manual uncapping, marking and capping actions to prepare multiple specimen slides is very time consuming, inefficient, and labor intensive. A cytotechnologist's valuable time that is wasted with these tasks would be better spent analyzing specimen samples and conducting other more important work.
Some known systems have provided for machines having limited capping functionality or limited de-capping functionality, particularly in the area of filling and capping vials that are filled with prescription drugs. Known systems, however, can be improved. For example, a system should be automated so that a vial can be automatically loaded, uncapped, presented to a cytotechnologist or processing device to obtain a sample, and automatically re-capped. An automated system should eliminate many of the tedious and repetitive uncapping, marking and capping tasks that are associated with known systems and techniques. In addition, automated systems should place the correct cap on a particular vial so that samples are not contaminated or misidentified.
Cytotechnologists may also utilize slide cartridges for storing and dispensing slides. Cartridges typically store slides in a vertically stacked arrangement. For example, some cartridges store about 100 to 200 slides, one on top of another, so that, top to bottom surfaces of adjacent slides are in contact with each other. A stack of about 100 glass slides can impart a force of about one pound on the bottom glass slide. Such forces can present significant problems for processing machines and devices that retrieve a bottom slide from the stack and deliver the selected slide to another processing station for applying a specimen sample, staining, printing, etc. For example, a machine or device may have difficulty pushing a slide out from underneath the stack of other slides as a result of the weight and friction on the top surface of the bottom slide caused by the weight of the slides above. A machine or device may also accidentally select more than one slide as a result of slides being arranged in a vertical stack and the selection element not being able to engage an individual slide. Further, a slide may also “tiddlywink” or flop upward at an angle or exhibit other irregular motions as the slide is close to being pushed out from underneath the stack of slides. These irregular motions result from the weight of the slides above being focused on the second or last end of the slide as the last end is removed from underneath the stack. These irregular motions can result in slide placement errors and damaged slides.
Known slide cartridges can thus be improved. Slides should be arranged within and dispensed from a cartridge in a more reliable and predictable manner. The vertical weight that is applied to individual slides, in particular, to ends of slides as they are pushed out from underneath a stack of slides, should be reduced and/or eliminated. Slides should also be dispensed from a cartridge to a predictable position that enables a cytotechnologist or a processing device or machine to easily select the dispensed slide, thus reducing slide picking and processing errors.